Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin costume duo: too offensive?

You would think that people would have learned by now that wearing a black face on Halloween is offensive and unacceptable. Yes, part of the holiday’s fun is dressing up as something you’re not, but you have to have boundaries in this day and age. Julianne Hough wore a black face for this Halloween, and faced the wrath of America, but recently apologized on her Twitter. Not only did two men in Florida not learn from Hough’s mistake, but they took offensive costumes to the next level.

Greg Cimeno and William Filene thought it would be a good idea to dress up as Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman this Halloween. The Treyvon Martin impersonator wears a blood stained grey sweatshirt, coupled with a pitch-black face. The costume of Zimmerman features a shirt that says “Neighborhood watch”. Together, the two pose with Zimmerman pointing his hand in the shape of a gun at Martin’s head.

It’s not hard to see that Cimeno and Filene took this to far.

According to Gabrielle Bluestone from Gawker, this picture originated on facebook, but has since been deleted by the girl who posted it. She also deleted her facebook page.

Blackface, although wrong, isn’t the problem. Lisa Fogarty from The Stir wrote, “The problem here isn’t racism — it’s a total lack of respect and regard.”

I couldn’t agree more. The controversial incident involving Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman is not something to make light of. Some people might dress up with costumes spoofing current events, and that’s okay, but like I said: you have to know boundaries. There’s simply no need for costumes like this. What do you think?

2 Responses

Yes, it really is all about judgement. Don’t dress up in costumes that can offend other people and DON’T post potentially offensive material on social media sites because even if you change your mind and take the offending content down, it’s already been archived, and can still be circulated.